This week is Headway’s national Action for Brain Injury Week
and one of the visitors to our stall at Addenbrooke’s Hospital was Dr Mary Archer, chairman of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I was so impressed. She has wonderful people skills and took great interest in our work, thanking everybody personally for their involvement. We all thought she was terrific. She is so petite too, but full of charm and 
grace.
The focus of this year’s campaign is to raise awareness about the written information given to patients with a head injury as many A & E departments are failing to do so, risking further health complications to victims of minor head injuries.
Our stall also included info promoting the use of cycle helmets which aroused considerable interest, with one pediatrician telling us that cycle helmets were compulsory for adults and children in Australia where he comes from, and this had resulted in fewer cases of head injury, though it also meant there were fewer cyclists on the road too. He firmly believed the same law should be introduced in the UK. Earlier this year, Conservative MP Peter Bone accused the Department of Transport of burying research that he says proved that wearing cycle helmets would save the life of up to one in seven cyclists involved in a fatal accident. I hope he continues flagging up this issue now he is in government.
One of our trustees at Headway Cambridgeshire, where I am chair of trustees, believes his cycle helmet saved his life after a hit and run motorist left him lying in a ditch for hours. He also is no doubt about this.
Last week Boris Johnson announced that 12 cycle “superhighways” were to be built in London, which must be a terrifying city to cycle around. I am pleased to see him wearing his helmet, and wonder if he would be brave enough to make its users wear helmets for their own safety on these “superhighways”.
Incidentally, I didn’t realise it wasn’t legal for alll quad-bike riders to wear cycle helmets on our roads. I find that quite amazing.
Would you like to see cycle helmets made compulsory?
Dr Archer is pictured with Andrew Gardner, our Headway Cambs chief exec.
Undoubtedly yes.
Absolutely not , it would be yet another notch in the belt of the nanny state.
People should be entirely free to decide on matters to do with their own personal safety but be prepared to accept that accidents happen .
The Queen is a fine exaple of this rule , she , unlike most horse riders, still only wears a headscalf rather than a hard helmet , its her choice .
AS for Dr Archer , the only time I ever met her face to face I thought she had the hardest eyes Id ever seen on a woman.
This is so difficult – I think it should be up to the individual but I’m sure most mothers woould want their children to wear helmets.
disaffected, this is going to be hard to legislate because many people feel the same as you about personal choice. As regards Dr Archer, your comments are a bit harsh, aren’t they?
I think it should be up to the individual, but why wouldn’t you wear a helmet? A close friend of mine was riding his bike over a sewer grate and it caused him to lose his balance and he flew off his bike head first into the curb. Luckily he was wearing a helmet, but it split in half.
Imagine what would have happened if he wasn’t wearing it? Not only to him, but to his family. He has two kids and what seemed to be a casual bike ride could have been a fatality or a severe injury.
Harsh but true Ellee.
Given that nowhere with a helmet law or massive rise in helmet wearing due to promotional campaigns has been able to demonstrate any reduction in risk to cyclists, no, helmets should not be compulsory. Given that the overall effect at a society level is massively negative, because helmet laws and promotion reduce the level of cycling and the hugely beneficial effects of cycling are lost, no again.
BHIT, the helmet promotion charity, has agreed with the ASA not to use the disproved figure of 85% effectiveness of helmets, but they still do on their website because it isn’t covered by ASA rules. They know it isn’t true but they still use it.
Check out cyclehelmets.org for a few facts, not the self-delusions of proven liars.
Here is a girl’s story on the BBC website about how a cycle helmet helped save her twin sister’s life: http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/slink/sexlovelife/reallife/bicycle-helmet.shtml
Very good question, Ellee – protection vs freedom of choice.
Are you advertising Headway’s hats for Headway day? http://www.headway.org.uk/hats-for-headway-day.aspx
Hi Pip, I’m impressed with your knowledge about the Headway Hat campaign. I adore hats, and bought a pretty pink one with a veil which you wear tilted to the side. I’m hoping to wear it Newmarket Races.
Regarding cycling helmets, this is a very divisive issue, but Headway is convinced compulsory helmets should be legislated for young children for safety reasons.
Here in the states (in California, at least) cycle helmets are mandatory for all individuals under 18 years of age, but once you grow up you can choose to use one or go without. I think that this makes the most sense, requiring the young ones to protect themselves during the age when they may not know right from wrong, yet not taking away the freedom to choose from the adults….
-Daryn